State Of The World
October 28, 2002, 3:11 PM

I don't know about you, but personally, I feel there's something very weird about the way the world works. Don't you think something's wrong with society if a person who can strut the catwalk gets paid more than someone who saves lives? Who is the guy sitting high up there saying - "OK now, we'll pay models more than we pay doctors ... for no other reason than the fact that they look good."

And for that matter, what are the conditions for 'looking good'? I know for certain that it's got something to do with being tall ... after all, there must be a reason as to why whenever my class lines up to measure their heights there're always squeals of excitement when people realize they've grown, albeit by 0.2 of a centimetre. That kind of takes the thrill out of things, yeah, but maybe it's the princip �le of the matter.

In fact, I've noticed that it's directly in proportion to weight. You grow, you slim, you happy. You don't grow, you gain weight, you sad. And why? You don't have to be Kate Moss skinny to be healthy and happy ... so why do we strive for that impossible aim? We know that some of us just aren't built that way - the problem is that we don't really care.

So what have we got so far? Height and weight. There's more, of course. The features of your face ... but again, that's hazy. Different people have different ideals of beauty, which means that the modelling industry is always going through some major revamp every few years. Who was that guy who said that Claudia Schiffer was finished - that her time had came and passed? I don't think anybody could have anticipated that a mere six months ago, when she a �nd Cindy Crawford were still at their peaks. Incidentally, I find it highly ironic that the guy who said that happened to be the designer who made her famous in the first place. Does he routinely toss out models every now and then, kinda like clothes? The models don't complain ... but then, I wouldn't complain if I was earning a few million dollars for sitting around in beautiful clothes.

Of course, I'm not. I'm at home typing. And that's why I'm complaining.

The same ridiculous illogicity applies in Hollywood. There're people starving all over the world, and Tom Cruise gets millions for starring in 'Jerry Maguire'. There're the war refugees in Bosnia, the homeless children in Africa - and people who have the money pay seven dollars to watch Tom Cruise act, thus reaffirming the theory of the Hollywood bigshots that people are mindles �s sheep and leading them to make more movies, which more people will watch ...

Doesn't anybody ever grow frustrated of this cycle? Though I must admit - it's a lot easier to stay in hotels when you fly to England for a vacation than to give away all that hard-earned money to people whom you don't know, and will probably never meet. There's always that old 'this-is-good' formula - but the problem is, it doesn't really work. I don't mind giving up my seat to a pregnant woman on a bus (although in my case the pregnant woman didn't want the seat I offered) but ask me to give up watching movies for the rest of my life so that I can give all that money to people all over the world ... and I don't think I'd jump in delight at the possibility.

The truth is that, after all, we're all selfish. We worked hard to make all this money - why should we give it away? So there're others who're less fortunate than we are ... well, that's the way the world works! Not all men are equal. Look at Mao Zedong, who tried to prove that with Communism and failed miserably.

Actually, that's fine with me. I'm not that eager to give up my present lifestyle, which I must say is ridiculously sheltered and blessed. Every single day of my life I've had a roof over my head, a bed to sleep in, three square meals a day (of course, since I'm hungry all the time that doesn't exactly satisfy me), tons and tons of books that spill out of bookshelves, CDs (like the one playing on the computer right now), a big fat allowance that I'm probably never going to be satisfied with ... why should I complain? By the way, that doesn't necessarily mean that I don't complain. I do complain. I complain a lot.

What I'm saying (yes, finally I'm getting to the point, after a page of rambling) is that maybe we should rearrange our priorities. For all you selfish buggers out there (and this includes me), you don't have to give anything up. You just have to ask yourself whether you believe in paying a model more than a neurosurgeon.

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